prompt 13: sacred objects, my sanctuary

volamonsterprompted me: What physical objects do you own that have deep sentiment attached to them? Can you tell us some stories about them, and/or how you feel about them and why?

Many, many. They almost all fit into two small boxes though, because they are all small things or flat things.

This is a photo of my sanctuary. This is where I do magic, meditate, feel like I have stepped inside a bubble of myself. Every single thing you see here has spiritual significance to me. The twisted-paper tree on the top right I made myself, as well as the keys winddancer and the sistrum right below it. The four works of art you can actually see are all original -- the top left one is the thing that cost me the most in this photo. I fell in love with it at a coffeeshop in Charleston (when I went there for a TreeSpirit shoot) and the coffeeshop owner talked the artist down from $110 to $45, and even though that was more than I really had, I bought it. The top right one is an original from an artist in Canada, who I had followed for a while on deviantArt. When I saw this one I went wild and asked how much it would be because I was dying for it, and ze said $50. I told zir I was sad because I couldn't afford even that low price, and asked about prints. Ze told me to give zir my address, and framed it and shipped it to me for FREE. And I know that shipping isn't cheap! I was so overwhelmed and touched by that. Ze said ze knew it would have a great home with me and that is true. It has been next to my altar since. The painting on papyrus underneath that is by my friend jenniology, who shares my veneration of ancient Egypt. Ze gave it to me for my birthday one year and I kept it put away because I didn't have a frame, but then I got frustrated with waiting and just hung it with thumbtacks, because I wanted to be able to see it. The same is true for the charcoal next to it, a portrait of me by clown_frog done from a self-portrait I took, also gifted. Underneath that is the Book of the Dead gifted to me by another lj friend who I've lost touch with. Next to that is a clouded leopard that was shioneh's as a child, which ze gifted to me for my birthday one year, and a little snow leopard kitten that Snow Leopard Trust sent me as thanks for a donation. On the windowsill is a solar-powered rainbow-light glass lantern that rextrocular gave me, a candle in a glass jar that my childhood friend Rebecca gave me, and a luck tree that grey_arizona gave me. Above that are ornaments that kmiotutsie gave me, and a windchime that topaznebula gave me (they're blown out in the photo, sadly). If you look hard you can see a pendant hanging from my altar that volamonster gave me, and you probably can't make them out but gifts from camilleyun (a glass angel holding a star), frecklestars (mini glass vessels), darkpool (a rock painted black with green dragonflies) and secret_keep (a super colorful painting of a building with a spring green tree) are also there. The glowy rainbow stars on the floor are also from rextrocular. There are other gifts too! As you may be able to tell, I treasure things that are given to me with knowledge of who I am. Glass matters to me because I feel it as magic I can hold in my hand. Trees are deeply important to me, as is color and light, Egypt and art.

So, things that I obtained for myself would make up a whole post to itself, which I may do sometime when I take better photos of individual sections. But out of all of these things, probably the ones that matter most to me are found objects. I have a small piece of sea glass, aqua-colored, which I found on the beach while I was questioning the presence of good in the universe after Hannah and Nick broke up with me. It was the first and only colored sea glass I have ever found, and I felt it as a gift from the universe telling me to have faith in love. An equally important piece is a shard of wood I took from the corpses of the "lover trees" who I spent so much time with in Pennsylvania before they were ruthlessly chopped down for no good reason. Also a bit of mirror and two gears I found on the ground the night that Kylei and I first sought magic together. Things that connect me to people, to moments, to places and to spirits are sacred to me. I own other things, but 98% of the things I would mourn to lose are in this small space.

I wasn't ever using my bathtub, and started using it for storage. Then, after roommates rearranged furniture, I realized I had too many futons. So I ended up folding them over the bathtub to create a love seat.It's a great space. I've since put paintings up in the three walls enclosing it. I love it, partner loves it, cat loves it (although I rarely let her into my bathroom unattended because of the potential for mischief). But I definitely don't use it enough; partly from lack of consistency/discipline, partly (and related) because I keep getting kidnapped by aliens.